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In the case of a decision to breed guinea fowl, the question of what age is better to buy a bird is first of all decided. From the point of view of economic payback, it is more profitable to buy grown birds, as they are more likely to sit on eggs. But the question arises when the guinea fowls begin to lay eggs and how old the bird should be in a particular month so that it starts laying eggs in the spring.
At what age do guinea fowls start laying
The term of puberty in females normally occurs at 8 months, but the time of the onset of oviposition depends not only on age, but also on the conditions of detention. Under normal conditions, guinea fowl usually start laying in February-March at the age of 9-11 months.
The fact that caesars later become sexually mature means that in the case of buying birds of the same age, at first the guinea fowl eggs will be food, since the male was not yet able to fertilize them.
Therefore, if suddenly the seller claims that he is selling an industrial breed that starts laying eggs as early as six months, this is not true. At home, such a guinea fowl will start laying eggs at the usual 9 months. Of course, provided that the already “accelerated” bird was not bought.
The number of eggs that one guinea fowl can lay is different for each breed. But the unified rule is that the length of the period during which the guinea fowl are laid affects the number of eggs laid. In good laying hens, the intervals between laying cycles are short, and the cycles themselves are longer than the average time of one laying in the breed.
With a cellular content, more eggs are obtained from guinea fowls than with outdoor ones, since under artificial conditions it is possible, due to lighting, to shift the time when guinea fowls begin to rush to the winter months.
But with a cellular content, you can only get a food egg. To obtain fertilized optimal conditions of detention is a room with the possibility of walking.
When walking in birds, metabolism improves and sexual behavior is stimulated.
In addition, even at home, it is possible to ensure that guinea fowl rush more often than one egg per day. To do this, with the help of artificial lighting, the birds are set for a 16-hour day. As a result, a guinea fowl can bring 3 eggs in two days. But such a regime exhausts the body of guinea fowl.
The very first eggs that guinea fowl bring (usually February and March) are too small and are not suitable for breeding chickens.
Guinea fowl breeding methods
There are two ways: an incubator and a hen. If the mother hen option is chosen, then one should not expect a large number of eggs from the guinea fowl per season, as she will not have an incentive to continue laying eggs.
Hatching chicks with a brood hen
For incubation of chickens, the guinea fowl usually looks for a secluded place. In this case, the eggs should not be disturbed. Birds are very shy and if you touch the nest, they leave it and go to rush to another place.
Before incubation, the guinea fowl lays about 20 eggs, after which it sits tightly on the eggs. Guinea fowl eggs are smaller than chicken eggs, but the basic law: the smaller the egg, the faster the chicks hatch, it does not work in the case of guinea fowl. The main difference that makes it difficult to breed guinea fowl under a chicken is the timing of how many guinea fowl hatch eggs. Guinea fowl incubates eggs from 25 to 28 days. That is, in fact, these are the terms of the turkey.
The guinea fowl should not be disturbed when it sits on eggs, therefore, at home, birds make closed nests indoors. Outsiders should not enter these poultry houses.
To hatch chicks, brood hens need peace and security.
At the same time, if a guinea fowl decides to nest, it can become very aggressive.
Comment! Guinea fowls come out unfriendly. Withdrawals can take up to two days.
If in the case of an incubator this does not matter much, then under the hen, the previously hatched chickens, having dried out, can go to explore the world while the mother sits on the remaining eggs. Or the mother hen will abandon the half-hatched cesars and go to nurse the first batch.
Breeding in an incubator
When incubating, only medium-sized eggs, with the correct shape and a smooth whole shell, are used. You can check for microcracks in the shell by tapping the eggs against each other. If there are cracks, the sound will be rattling.
There is no need to be afraid to break the shell with a light tapping. Caesar eggs have a very strong shell. Such a shell allows you to store caesar eggs much longer than chicken ones, without fear that they will deteriorate.
Also, before laying, the eggs must be illuminated with an ovoscope to make sure that there are no blood clots inside.
In the incubator, caesar eggs can be kept together with chicken eggs, incubating in the “chicken” mode. But it is better if they are incubated separately. Since in nature, the female can hatch chicks only during the dry period, and the eggs during hatching are in much more severe conditions than in chickens.
When incubating guinea fowl in an incubator, a lower humidity is maintained than when incubating any other poultry. Thick shell and durable film will not allow the contents to dry out.
This is explained by the fact that it has a very powerful defense against the penetration of pathogenic bacteria. But water from the inside can seep out and evaporate.
Chicken embryos are usually checked on days 7 and 14 by discarding spoiled eggs. Cesarins recommend looking only at 21-23 days. At this time, it will be seen if the embryo inside is frozen. Unfortunately, in many caesar eggs, the chick will be dead.
But this method works only just before hatching, when the chick begins to actively move and punch a hole into the air chamber with its beak.
You need to put the egg on a sieve turned upside down. An egg with a dead chick will remain motionless, with a live one it will roll around the net. It will not be able to fall, the sides will interfere.
After hatching, the chicks are placed in a brooder and provided with quality feed. Caesareas do not require special feed, they can be fed with the usual starter feed for chickens. The presence of all the necessary nutrients, vitamins and trace elements will ensure rapid growth of the guinea fowl.
In brooders, the cesareans are kept, depending on the weather, either until they fledge, or even longer. But you have to watch the temperature. The first days it should be high enough so that the crown princes do not freeze.
It is worth leaving the radius of the lamp and the air will be too cold for the heated skin, heated by infrared radiation. This can cause a guinea fowl to catch a cold even in a brooder. It is better to use ordinary incandescent lamps or heating elements.
Later, the temperature in the brooder is gradually lowered. With an incandescent lamp, this is especially convenient, since you can simply reduce the temperature by changing the lamps to less powerful ones.
Principles of feeding and keeping the main herd
To obtain the maximum number of fertilized eggs, laying females and breeding males are provided with compound feed for laying hens, which stimulates egg laying and is rich in vitamin E. It is necessary to provide birds with quality feed even before laying. Normally, the preparation for the cycle in laying hens takes a month.
Sometimes this does not help, and the birds that laid eggs last year stubbornly refuse to do this this year, not paying attention to the fact that it is not even February, but April. The reasons are often unknown, since the owners did not change the feeding.
Advice! When the reasons why the guinea fowl stopped laying are unknown, you can try giving them boiled potatoes for a few days. Often, after potatoes, birds begin to lay eggs.
If you give last year’s potatoes, you need to break off the sprouts and drain the water after cooking.
At home, it is better to keep birds not in cages, but in a poultry house, where they can be provided with deep bedding and nesting boxes at the bottom and perches at the top. Guinea fowl fly much better than chickens and a perch one and a half to two meters high is quite within their power.
Although egg-laying in guinea fowls begins in winter, they scatter these eggs everywhere and are not going to sit on them. They will try to nest only with the onset of warm days.
If you need to control the laying, then the birds are left in the house in the morning, providing them with food and water. After lunch, the laying hen should be demolished.
So, after all, what is more profitable: growing a breeding herd of eggs or chicks or buying already grown young animals? Young growth can cost much more than eggs, even taking into account the further rearing and feeding of hatched cesareans. But there will be no need to worry about the percentage of survival and take care of the Caesars all summer.
Hatching eggs should be bought in the spring so that the birds have time to grow. Grown young can be taken in the fall.
In terms of food, sometimes chicks can even be more profitable if there is access to cheap or free food. But this is rare. In addition, such feeds usually do not provide the bird with all the necessary substances.
In order to get a good offspring, both the broodstock and the young fattened for meat should be provided with high-quality feed.